Learning Disabilities

Documentation Guidelines

The documentation provided must include information that diagnoses a learning disability, describes the functional limitations in an educational setting, includes appropriate testing as outlined in number five and all standardized scores, and indicates the severity and longevity of the learning disability for the purpose of determining academic adjustment(s) or other accommodations.

Documentation should include:

  1. Diagnosis (as diagnosed by the DSM-IV-TR)
  2. Level of Severity: Mild Moderate Severe
  3. Date of Diagnosis
  4. Date of Last Contact with Student
  5. One of each of the following:
      1. Diagnostic Interview (including history)
      2. Aptitude Suggested tests, including:
          • Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV
          • Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery Revised: Test of Cognitive Ability
          • Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence
          • Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (4th ed.)
      3. Achievement Suggested tests, including:
          • Scholastic Abilities Test for Adults
          • Stanford Test of Academic Skills
          • Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Revised: Test of Achievement
          • Wechsler Individual Achievement Test
          • Information Processing (if applicable)
      4. Screening instruments such as the WRAT, or abbreviated testing instruments do not provide enough detailed information and may not be sufficient to determine eligibility and accommodations

Documentation should also contain:

  1. A summary of the student’s educational, medical, and family history that may relate to the learning disability (must demonstrate that difficulties are not the result of sensory impairment, serious emotional disturbance, cultural differences, or insufficient instruction)
  2. The symptoms which meet the criteria for the DSM-IV-TR diagnosis with the approximate date of onset
  3. The student’s functional limitations in an educational setting
  4. Recommendations regarding necessary and appropriate auxiliary aids or services, academic adjustments or other accommodations to equalize the student’s educational opportunities at LSU

Accommodations

Accommodations are decided on a case-by-case basis and may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Priority registration
  • Tape recorders
  • Note taking
  • Extended time on examinations
  • Examinations in a distraction-reduced environment
  • Consideration for spelling
  • Reader
  • Scribe
  • E-Text
  • Word processor with spell-checker

Contact Us

  • To register for services
  • To request additional accommodation(s)
  • When unable to work out approved accommodations with faculty
  • When accommodations do not seem to be helping
  • When there is a problem. Be honest with staff and faculty. We cannot be of assistance if we do not know a problem exists.

LEARNING DISABILITIES DOCUMENTATION FORM (PDF)

Other Forms